The Citizenship Debates

A Reader

1998

Gershon Shafir, editor

A multidisciplinary assessment of issues surrounding citizenship.

This multidisciplinary volume addresses the recent revision of the idea of citizenship through a neoliberal viewpoint, succeeded by critiques from communitarian, social-democratic, nationalist, feminist, and multiculturalist perspectives.

Contributors: Rogers Brubaker, Nancy Fraser, Linda Gordon, Kathleen B. Jones, Will Kymlicka, T. H. Marshall, Adrian Oldfield, Yoav Peled, J. G. A. Pocock, John Rawls, Yasemin Nuhoglu Soysal, Michael Walzer, Max Weber, Iris Marion Young.

"The collapse of the Soviet Union, the spread of nationalist warfare, and the new tide of refugees have rekindled debates over the legitimacy of national borders and over the rights of citizens. Shafir’s collection provides an invaluable contribution to understanding the new controversy over the meaning of citizenship.” Micheline Ishay, University of Denver

Beyond its emotional resonance and cultural ramifications, citizenship provides the legal and social framework for individual autonomy and political democracy. Recently, the question of citizenship has gained renewed attention in response to major trends worldwide-welfare entitlement cuts, democratization in Eastern Europe, a rise in ethnic and national conflict, and an increase in global migration. In this truly multidisciplinary volume, leading scholars from sociology, political theory, philosophy, anthropology, and history offer key analyses of the multiple debates surrounding these changes while interrogating traditional views of citizenship.

The Citizenship Debates begins with a thorough introduction followed by a number of essays addressing the recent revision of the idea of citizenship through a neoliberal viewpoint, succeeded by critiques from communitarian, social-democratic, nationalist, feminist, and multiculturalist perspectives. These critiques, organized to serve an essential pedagogical function, not only provide a framework for analyzing the problems of inclusion and exclusion in modern societies but also give concrete examples for understanding citizenship around the world.

A timely and innovative guidebook, The Citizenship Debates is a crucial multidisciplinary introduction to the complex issues and debates surrounding citizenship in today’s ever-changing world.

Contributors: Rogers Brubaker, U of California, Los Angeles; Nancy Fraser, New School for Social Research; Linda Gordon, U of Wisconsin; Kathleen B. Jones, San Diego State U; Will Kymlicka, U of Ottawa; T. H. Marshall; Adrian Oldfield, U of Salford, UK; Yoav Peled, Tel Aviv U; J. G. A. Pocock, Johns Hopkins U; John Rawls, Harvard U; Yasemin Nuhoglu Soysal, Harvard U; Michael Walzer, Princeton U; Max Weber; Iris Marion Young, U of Pittsburgh.

ISBN 0-8166-2880-7 Cloth $49.95xx
ISBN 0-8166-2881-5 Paper $19.95x
320 pages 5 7/8 x 9 February
Translation inquiries: University of Minnesota Press

Gershon Shafir is professor in the department of sociology at the University of California, San Diego.

"The collapse of the Soviet Union, the spread of nationalist warfare, and the new tide of refugees have rekindled debates over the legitimacy of national borders and over the rights of citizens. Shafir’s collection provides an invaluable contribution to understanding the new controversy over the meaning of citizenship.” Micheline Ishay, University of Denver

The strength of The Citizenship Debates is precisely that it cuts traditional 'pies' in new ways, focusing attention on a field that, as Shafir indicates, is often lost in the interstices of more traditional categories.

Adam B. Seligman, Boston University